Lionel Messi's uninspiring two-year stint at Paris Saint-Germain is set to come to an acrimonious end with a move to join long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia, just months after his crowning glory at the 2022 World Cup.

For his legions of admirers, the debate about Messi's right to be regarded as the greatest footballer in history was officially put to bed when he led Argentina to the title in Qatar in December.

But his career at the highest level in Europe appears to have finished on a low note.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco announced first-quarter net profit of $31.9 billion on Tuesday, down 19.25 percent from a year earlier after a drop in crude prices.

The result was lower than the $39.5 billion reported in the same period in 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine caused oil prices to surge.

It is more than three-quarters of the $40.5 billion in combined first-quarter profits reported by the five oil majors: BP and Shell in Britain, ExxonMobil and Chevron in the United States, and TotalEnergies in France.

A series of Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed three Islamic Jihad militant group leaders and 12 other people, leaving both sides bracing for an escalation.

Islamic Jihad vowed to "avenge" the deaths, which came in a pre-dawn raid involving 40 Israeli aircraft, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned "our enemies" of a "crushing response" to any escalation.

The first Israeli strike hit targets in the crowded coastal territory for nearly two hours starting just after 2:00 am (2300 GMT Monday).

Haydar Mohamed once grew wheat and barley, but Iraq's relentless drought has forced him off the land and into the city where he now works in construction and drives a taxi.

"The transition is difficult," said Mohamed, 42, who abandoned village life several years ago for a shantytown in the central city of Karbala.

He is part of a growing wave of climate migrants in Iraq, a country that is on the frontlines of the global warming crisis.

Years of dire water scarcity left him no choice but to move, said the father of five.

Funding for a global initiative aimed at creating more environmentally friendly and climate-resilient farming has grown to $13 billion, co-leaders the United States and the United Arab Emirates said Monday.

That money means the Agriculture Innovation Mission (AIM) for Climate, launched in 2021, now exceeds its $10 billion target for the COP28 climate talks, to be hosted by the UAE in November and December.

The European Union said Monday it was cancelling its Europe Day reception in Tel Aviv after the extremist Israeli minister representing the government stood firm in his intention to participate.

In a statement, the EU delegation to Israel said it would still celebrate Europe Day on Tuesday but regretted that "this year we have decided to cancel the diplomatic reception, as we do not want to offer a platform to someone whose views contradict the values the European Union stands for."

Iran on Monday hanged two men on charges of spreading blasphemy on social media, prompting US condemnation and accusations from Amnesty International the Islamic republic has reached a "new low" in a spree of executions.

Sadrollah Fazeli Zare and Youssef Mehrdad, convicted of desecrating the Koran and insulting the Prophet Mohammed, were hanged in the morning in a prison in the central city of Arak, the judiciary's Mizan Online website said.

Air strikes again shook Sudan's capital Monday while the latest truce talks in Jeddah yielded no progress and a Saudi diplomat said both sides consider themselves "capable of winning the battle".

Sudan was thrown into deadly chaos when fighting broke out on April 15 between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Battles have since killed hundreds, wounded thousands and uprooted hundreds of thousands, leading to fears of security fallout beyond Sudan's borders.

Ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia between Sudan's warring generals have yielded "no major progress" so far, a Saudi official told AFP on Monday, dampening hopes for a quick end to the fighting.

Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), sent representatives to the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on Saturday for meetings that Washington and Riyadh have described as "pre-negotiation talks".

As a young girl, Iraqi Kurd Shylan Kamal would help her mother knead bread until one day she realised the work was a way to build up muscles -- and she liked it.

Now 46 and herself a mother, Kamal sees her passion for bodybuilding as a matter of gender equality in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

"Having muscles is good for women too," she told AFP during a session at a gym in the provincial capital Arbil, where she spends four hours training every day.

"We can express our beauty through bodybuilding," Kamal said.